


While You Were Sleeping

by Luki



Series: Dr. Stone Week: Luki Edition [5]
Category: Dr. STONE (Anime), Dr. STONE (Manga)
Genre: Day 5 - Reactions, Dr. STONE Week, Gen, Out of Body Experiences
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-03
Updated: 2020-07-03
Packaged: 2021-03-05 05:27:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,786
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25049143
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Luki/pseuds/Luki
Summary: When Senku wakes up, his stone shell remains.---An amalgamation of 2 ideas I've mentioned on Discord.  The idea that Ginro can see supernatural entities, and 'what if you need nital to revive, but nitric acid wakes up your ghost?'
Series: Dr. Stone Week: Luki Edition [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1811146
Comments: 3
Kudos: 132
Collections: Dr. Stone Week 2020





	While You Were Sleeping

**Author's Note:**

> Entry No.5 for Dr. Stone week (Reactions - For Want of a Nail), significantly late, but complete. Will not be doing one for day 6, since I knew I'd struggle with getting 5, and want to make sure I can finish 7. Enjoy!
> 
> This is an amalgamation of 2 ideas I've mentioned on Discord. The idea that Ginro can see supernatural entities, and basically 'what if you need nital to revive, but nitric acid wakes up your ghost?'

It’s been 3,689 years since Senku has seen light. Nearly 4,000 years since he’s been able to move.

Technically, he still hasn’t. Considering he no longer has eyes to see or a body to move.

As he looks down at the stone statue that he once possessed, he tries to consider his options.

Thanks to his counting, he knows that he’s been petrified for thousands of years – the actual calculation is frustrating, especially when you factor in leap years, but he’s certain the date is the year 5738, on April 1 st – which almost seems fitting. The land certainly lends validity to that time lapse, there’s absolutely nothing resembling modern Japan any more. Just stone statues draped throughout the forest, some of which look similar to students at his school. For a brief moment, he wonders exactly where Taiju and Yuzuriha, or other members of the Science Club ended up, but there’s literally nothing he can do for them right now. At least not until he has a working set of rules.

First experiment – he cannot return to his body.

He tried a dozen different ways. It had been the most likely object he could affect, but no luck at all. Whatever woke up his spirit might be able to revert the stone with enough experimentation, but no matter what he does, his form just phases through the stone.

Second experiment. Mind over matter is a legitimate rule for him now. Even as he was standing on the ground, he cannot feel gravity or grass at his feet. He tries jumping first, and while he doesn’t land any differently the first time, his legs don’t give way like they should. He aims for a higher tree branch next – and suddenly goes flying in the air.

He’s a little ashamed that he screams and flaps his arms a little helplessly as he starts falling, and somehow ends up ten feet in the dirt. For a few terrifying moments, when he tries to aim for the surface again, he thinks he’s just been dreaming and is still stuck in the stone, but finds the light and the forest a few seconds later. Clearly, his mind just expects him to be able to walk on the ground, so his...presence, does. But there’s no actual requirement to do so – he can float around at any speed or height he wants.

Third experiment, how sentient is he? This is hard to prove without another human being to bounce off, (it’s an interesting thing to realise nobody else is free. Whatever shook him loose apparently hasn’t worked on anyone else. Or if it has, they didn’t stick around), but is he actually _ Senku _ released from the stone, or has the counting finally driven him insane and sent him into a fever dream? Or, has he died? Is the stone a genuine corpse now?

He discards this experiment almost as quickly as he brings it up. When it comes to the mind, there’s no way to prove any of this – its a philosophy question, and that’s never been his forte. For now, he’s aware, and that’ll have to do.

Essentially, he’s the equivalent of a sentient hologram. He’s apparently existing on another plane of existence, and while he doesn’t appear too translucent, a few brief checks prove he can phase straight through trees, but cannot physically affect anything.

At least he’s not naked. While he can’t see any reason for it, and the clothes on his body have rotted away a long time ago, he’s walking around in his lab coat and uniform. A moment of curiosity, and his coat changes to his old, comfortable v-neck sweater he wore on cold evenings, and grins as it shifts back.

Mind over matter indeed.

* * *

There’s an odd reluctance to leave his body where it lies. While it’s essentially nothing but a discarded cocoon now, it’s still  **his** body. Who knows what will happen to it if he leaves...but at the same time, there’s nothing he can do with it if he stays. The rational option is to move on, and see if there’s something he can do elsewhere. Find another spirit walking this world, discover an object or item that he can interact with, or see if anyone figured out how to undo the petrification and restart humanity.

Thankfully, being a spirit makes this plan a lot easier than expected. If he had a physical form, this trip would be a lot harder, but ghosts don’t need to eat, can fly instead of walk, and cannot get tired because there’s no physical body to exert. He is a little concerned about where he’s obtaining the energy to exist – just because he doesn’t have a physical brain real doesn’t change the fact that he’s still thinking, and that requires energy from  _ somewhere _ – but it’s entirely possible that ghosts exist in a different dimension, and the rules of energy conversion no longer apply. It could also be that his body is still alive, existing in a vegetative state within the rock, and he’s still piggybacking off it. He doesn’t really have any way to test it out until he can find another person, or even just a  _ rock _ , that he can interact with.

At first, he checks the local area, but sees no evidence of human civilization but the statues. He does come across Yuzuriha, still shielded by the tree that once stood in the school grounds, but Taiju remains missing, most likely one of the statues buried deeper in the area. So he keeps moving.

It takes him a week to track down civilization. History suggests that people will most likely settle near oceans, or at the very least a water source. And the ground near Mt. Fuji will be the most fertile for any possible crops, so he heads in that general direction.

He’s in fact studying hot springs, and appreciating the ability to get close to a sulphuric acid lake without dying (if there was still a society, there would be scientists all over the world weeping over his luck) when he spots his first human being. At first, he thinks it must be another ghost – but when he gets closer, it becomes clear that this girl is still breathing. For one thing, she’s dressed in leathers, dyed an extreme blue, but clearly not something a woman from his time would have ever worn, especially not with stone sandals and the rope belt. There’s clearly some foreign blood in her too, given her blonde hair and blue eyes – and she’s ridiculously strong, filling a giant container full of hot spring water and hoisting it on her shoulder with barely a stagger.

Well, no time like the present to introduce himself. He takes a running jump, and flies into the air, letting himself land just a few feet in front of her.

Okay, not interacting with the world is annoying, but he is ten billion percent never getting tired of that. He looks up to face the girl running towards them, and raises a hand.

“ Hey there, where-Gah!”

The girl walks straight through him, oblivious to his existence, and Senku quickly re-evaluates his understanding that nothing can affect him. People walking through him feels a mix of pins and needles and walking straight into a snow storm – only not as wet. He’ll need to make a point not to get into people’s way.

The conclusion is depressing, though not unexpected. The living cannot see him. Given that up until a few days ago, Senku had been of the impression that ghosts weren’t a thing, this was always the most likely outcome.

Regardless, the girl’s very existence means that someone, somewhere, either survived petrification or found a way to break free, and that’s enough of a clue to follow. He tails the girl through the forest, eyes widening when they come across the village on the lake.

There’s several dozen villagers, but there’s no signs of any modern technology. This, along with the fact that most of the villagers have western features, suggest that the village is composed of people born into this stone world, rather than anyone who successfully emerged from the rock – though their existence means  _ someone _ must have pulled it off, or found a way to avoid being petrified in the first place.

When she makes her way to the rather impressive suspension bridge, she’s stopped from crossing by the trio blocking the route. Two teenage boys are carrying spears and are probably standing guard, while another boy with a heavy looking basket on his back is standing opposite them, and yelling quite loudly.

“ -ing you that I’ve tested them!” he’s saying. “These plants are perfectly safe, and might help!”

“ The rules are the rules, Chrome,” the taller guard replies. “None of your sorcery experiments are allowed in the village without the Chief’s approval.”

“ It’s not sorcery, it’s just medicinal plants!” Chrome argues back, but the guards refuse to shift. His hackles are raised, but the trio drop their guard when they hear Senku’s escort clear her throat. Both brunets focus on her immediately, but the blond’s eyes flicker just a little to the right beforehand, and Senku narrows his eyes.

“ Kohaku,” Chrome says, face lighting up. “That water’s for Ruri right?”

She sighs. “Yes, but you know my father checks anything I bring to her. You’ll have to wait till he approves it.”

Chrome’s face falls. “But-”

“ Sorry Chrome, but I have to get this to my sister,” Kohaku says. “Kinro, Ginro,”

She nods at the guards and walks between them, heading straight into the village. Chrome desperately tries to slip in behind her, only to get rather harshly rebuffed, and hits the ground.

“ Not with the basket,” the brunet guard warns him again, while Chrome gets back to his feet, face flushed in embarrassment.

“ Dude, you crashed so hard there, I can still see the crater,” Senku laughs to himself, watching the so-called sorcerer storm off into the forest. He’s considering following him, and to possibly watch Chrome at his work (sorcery in a primitive world probably means science), when he hears a snicker. He stills, and turns to see the short blond guard quickly shifting his face back into a neutral expression as the taller guard frowns.

“ Try to be professional Ginro.”

Senku’s eyebrows narrow, and he walks forward. Ginro immediately tenses, his eyes shifting dramatically to the side, trying to look anywhere but right in front of him, and Senku starts to grin.

Scratch his earlier conclusion. The  _ majority _ of living people can’t see him.

“ Hey, you,” he says, stopping in front of him and leaning over the blond, who started shaking from his proximity. “You can see and hear me, can’t you?”

The blonde swallows, looking frightfully pale – and his shaking has finally caught the attention of the other guard,

“ Ginro, what’s wrong?” he says, looking over in concern. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

Senku doesn’t even try to stop the laugh that escapes from that, and Ginro looks like he wants to sink into the ground.

“ I, uh, I need some air,” Ginro squeaks, and scuttles to the side – conveniently avoiding Senku without looking too awkward, and flees for the trees. The other guard scowls.

“ Oi! Don’t slack off!” he yells. “If you’re not back in five, I’m dragging you back!”

Ginro doesn’t answer, bolting into the brush at speeds that would have made an Olympic runner proud. Had Senku been solid, he wouldn’t have had a hope in Hell of following him. Thankfully, he doesn’t need to breathe, and is no longer held down by gravity.

So, when Ginro finally stops, a decent distance out of the village, hands on his knees, and gulping down air, Senku just drops from the sky, and smirks at the blond.

“ So, you see a lot of spirits?”

It might be petty, but the shriek he gives is kind of amusing, as is him crashing to the ground and staring at him in partial terror.

“ S-stay away from me demon!” he wails. Senku just rolls his eyes.

“ Relax you idiot, I can’t actually do anything to you.”

To make his point, he shoves his hand straight into Ginro’s chest, and the blond shrieks to high heaven, before he cuts off and blinks at the arm.

“ There, see, harmless,” Senku says, pulling his arm back, shaking off the weird feeling the act caused. “So, like I asked, see a lot of things other people don’t?”

Ginro looks to the side, still far too pale.

“ No...”

Senku snorts. “That’s believable.”

That apparently riles the other teen up, and he turns to glare at him.

“ I don’t!” he insists. “Maybe one or two, but they never stick around. There’s a really scary one up in the mountains, but most of them are villagers after they died, and they don’t stick around long. I’ve never seen anyone as weird as you.”

He suddenly realises who he’s speaking to, and pales again.

“ S-so, go away!” Ginro says. “Pass on or something. I can’t help you.”

Senku crosses his arms and smirks back, shaking off the weird pins and needles effect. “Sorry, but I’m not quite ready to die for good just yet. I’ve got some questions for you.”

“ Well I’m not answering them,” Ginro says, clamping hands over his ears and closing his eyes. “Lalalalala!”

He maintains the noise for a full minute, before trailing off and slowly opening one eye. Unfortunately for him, Senku once endured a 55 minute ode to Yuzuriha when Taiju was at his most smitten. The blond’s going to have to do better than that.

“ You’re still here?” Ginro whines.

“ Where exactly are we?” Senku asks him. “How long has this village been here?”

“ If I answer, will you go away?” Ginro asks hopefully.

“ Nope,” Senku answers, not at all bothered when he drops his head in his hands.

“ Then I’m not telling you anything!” Ginro says, standing up and stomping on his foot. “I’ll just ignore you until you get bored. Watch me!”

“ Oh trust me, that’s not a game you’ll win,” Senku tells him. “Come on, you help me out, and I’ll help you out. I’m a scientist, bet I can tell you how to make all sorts of cool things with science…"

“ I don’t make stuff! I’m a warrior!” Ginro says. “Why don’t you go bother Chrome with that science stuff?”

Senku frowns. “That guy from the bridge. Right, he said he was a sorcerer.”

“ Yeah, exactly!” Ginro says, clearly sensing an opportunity. “Go bother him. Or...watch him. Maybe he can find some way to see or hear you and leave me out of it.”

Senku frowns, but before he can question Ginro further, they start to hear someone calling through the trees.

“ Ginro! I wasn’t joking!”

Kinro’s voice is irate, and close. The next thing Senku knows, Ginro is up and bolting again – a blue and yellow streak in the woods.

He lets him go. While Ginro gives him an option, he’ll clearly take some time to win over – Senku needs to figure out what he wants, and if he can provide it. No point promising something if he doesn’t have the materials.

Besides, this Chrome guy sounds like he could be interesting to at least watch for a while.

* * *

He’s right. Watching Chrome makes Senku excited.

Chrome is probably around his age, give or take a year, and naturally lacking anything but the most basic of education, but his hut nearly has Senku drooling. The rock and mineral collection stored here clearly took years to put together. It’s almost everything Senku would need to bring modern civilisation back...if he only had a body to utilise it!

He’s also got several baskets of medicinal plants, and that seems to be what he was working on before he was refused entry to the village. From what he remembers of the conversation, he suspects someone in the village is sick, but Chrome clearly tried one too many experiments and has lost some trust.

For nearly an hour, Senku watches him cut up the plants – most of them he recognises, and others are useless, but Chrome is clearly trying everything he can to test them out, using himself as a guinea pig.

“ Dammit, I ten billion percent wish I could talk to you, just for five minutes,” Senku says, standing up from the cross legged position he’d put himself in to watch. “You have no idea what you have here, and antibiotics would blow your mind.”

He only drags himself away to explore the village when Chrome stops experimenting and digs out something to eat. Flying makes it easy, and means he doesn’t have to deal with a panicked Ginro at the bridge, flying over the water and going to explore.

It’s about what he expected. A water faring tribe of people with only stone tools. The girl, Kohaku, he finds in the large building to the side, along with an older girl who can only be her sister, and a man he suspects is their father. Her sister has a tendency to go into coughing fits, and Senku suspects he knows just why Chrome’s swallowing backyard medicine right now.

He can’t exactly perform a diagnosis, but that cough is bad. The kind of thing herbal remedies just won’t cut it for. He returns to the main village, heading towards the bridge, going over the possibilities.

“ The best option would be a sulfa drug,” he says to himself. “But dammit, even if Chrome has the basic materials, I’d have to make the  _ tools _ to make the tools. That roadmap would be ridiculously long.”

He’s lost in thought, wondering what he’d start with, once he’d tormented Ginro into helping him, when a young girl wearing a melon on her head runs straight through him. That irritating feeling ripples through his body again, and he jerks to the side as she keeps going, oblivious to what she’s done.

“ Dammit! That is getting old!” he snaps, only to look up, and see a small white dog running after her. He barely has time to wince as the dog runs straight into him, and flinches for the weird unnerving feeling to hit again.

It does, and it’s a dozen times worse than before. He hears the dog yelp, and for a moment, things go black, his eyes closing instinctively. When they open, his point of view has dropped significantly, and there’s no sign of the dog.

(In Senku’s defence, he’s been rather stressed lately. Otherwise he would have realised what was going on a lot faster).

He blinks a few times more, and tries to run a hand through his metaphysical hair – at which point, he realises he’s on all fours, and a foreboding thought occurs to him. Before it can fully process, there are footsteps, and the little girl – looking not so little right now – is looming over him.

“ What’s wrong Chalk?” she says, kneeling down and patting Senku’s head. “We have to go home.”

“ Wait, you can see me?” Senku splutters, only to choke when he hears the sounds coming from his mouth. He’s barking.

Senku stops, and looks down. And promptly trips as he falls over all four of his feet.

He’s possessed the damn dog?

Wait, rewind. Possession is a thing?

“ This is exhilarating!” he barks. “How did I do it? How do I undo it?”

He barely has time to register that thought before that weird tugging sensation reappears, and Chalk is running into the village, yelping like mad as his owner chases after him – while he’s back in his current spiritual plane, mind running through all the possibilities.

For the first time since he woke up, Senku’s getting excited...it might have only been for a few seconds, but he’d possessed a dog. A living creature that can interact with the world. If he can do that, then humans might be possible too.

But...how? Kohaku had walked right through him, but there’s no reason he should be able to possess animals and not people. It actually makes less sense that way.

Unless…

The answer hits him like a bolt of lightning. Permission. It’s always a big thing in ghost stories – and even the dumbest tale has a kernel of truth. Animals don’t have the same mental process as humans, consent isn’t an option, but human brains run on a much faster setting. Senku can’t set up shop without hitting resistance.

But what if the person agrees beforehand?

* * *

Ginro is stumbling back into the village, eager for his bed after a day of guarding the bridge, Kinro half pushing him along, when the demon ghost from earlier suddenly lunges into view.

“ Hey, Ginro, I need you to let me possess you!”

“ AHHHH!!”

Understandably, Ginro jumps a foot in the air, and nearly clips Kinro’s chin.

“ Ginro!” his older teen snaps. “What is with you today?”

“ You’re still here?” Ginro whines.

“ Sure am,” Senku says. “Got an experiment we need to try. Chop, chop.”

Ginro is just glaring, half looking as if he wants to cry, and squeaks when Kinro places a hand on his forehead.

“ Ack, Kinro-” Ginro says, trying to lean back, but his brother merely follows the movements.

“ You haven’t acted this odd since that time I took you out hunting near the hot springs,” Kinro says. “I’m making sure you haven’t caught a fever. You’re clearly hallucinating again.”

“ N-no I’m not!” Ginro defends, pushing him away. Kinro allows it, but then moves in, and throws the blond over his shoulder.

“ Kinro!”

“ I’m not letting you out of my sight,” Kinro says, striding into the village. “It’s straight to bed, and you’re drinking the calming tea.”

“ Noooo, that stuff tastes awful!” Ginro whines. “I’m fine.”

Kinro just keeps moving, and Ginro starts staring daggers at Senku, who decides to stay where he is.

“ You know what, I’ll come back tomorrow,” Senku says. “Have a good night!”

* * *

The next morning, Senku floats through the roof of the hut the two had vanished into, and finds Ginro lying on a bed roll, alone and looking miserable. Unfortunately, when Senku asks him again-

“ No.”

“ Come on, all you have to do is say yes, that’s it,” Senku says. “I don’t even know if it’ll work.”

“ I said no!” Ginro says, arms crossed and glaring from his bed. “You made Kinro treat me like a baby! I’m not even allowed to guard the bridge with him today and everyone is acting like I’ve screwed up!”

Senku frowns. He admits, he hadn’t really thought through his request the day before, too excited at the discovery to wait for Ginro to be alone.

He thinks about Chrome’s collection, and what he had to use, then glances at the handful of personal items Ginro owns. The most obvious is his spear...

“ If we do this, I’ll make you something awesome,” he offers.

“ Not. Interested.”

“ Not even in a  _ silver _ spear?”

Ginro freezes, and looks up.

“ You can do that?”

Senku grins. Jackpot.

“ Sure can,” he says. “If it works, I’ll show Chrome how to make one. If it doesn’t, I’ll tell you how to tell Chrome how to make one. So, how about it?”

Ginro’s face lights up...and then falters.

“ But...you want to possess my body! That’s not worth a silver spear.”

Senku sighs. “Will it help if I promise not to do anything dangerous or bad with it? I mean, look at me.”

He gestures at his string bean frame body. “Does it really look like I can cause any harm?”

“ You’re a sorcerer, you don’t need strength!” Ginro argues.

“ ...Well, what about your brother?” Senku then asks. “Won’t he immediately know you’re not you if I do something bad? And hey, you’ve got Chrome to beat me in sorcery, right?”

“ Yeah...” Ginro says, nodding slowly. “And Kinro’s super strong...he’d beat you up in no time.”

He jumps to his feet, stares at Senku and swallows.

“ Okay then,” he says. “So long as you make me a silver spear, I’ll...letyoupossessmybodytemporarily!”

The rest of the sentence comes out in a mumbled jumble, but Senku quickly reaches over with a fingertip – and only feels the tingle. No shifting.

Ginro, whose eyes are squeezed tight, asks, “did it work?”

“ It doesn’t look like it,” Senku says, and pushes forward, sinking his hand into Ginro’s shoulder. But, when it reaches his wrist, there’s that awkward, painful feeling, and Senku starts grinning as things go dark.

* * *

Chrome was enjoying a late morning, having never been a morning person, only to wince at the sound of someone clattering around his collection.

His eyes instantly snap open, and he scrambles to his feet, limbs going everywhere.

“ Hey! That’s my collection, you – Ginro?”

Chrome’s arms drop down when he sees the blond hastily digging through a pot, and his eyes widen when Ginro turns, wearing an expression Chrome has never seen.

“ Hi there,” ‘Ginro’ says. “Nice to finally meet you. Sorry, but I need to borrow this.”

He lifts up a weird grey root thing, that Chrome had collected on a random trip. “I owe Ginro a spear for helping me out.”

“ Ginro...what...you’re some kind of demon spirit!” Chrome declares, in a fit of understanding.

The demon rolls his eyes. “That is going to get old. No, I’m not a demon, I’m a scientist. I’m just a little incorporeal right now. The name’s Senku.”

He uses his free hand to gesture to Ginro’s body. “Don’t know why, but Ginro can see and hear me, and if he gives me permission, I can possess him.”

“ Get out of him right now!” Chrome demands, scowling when ‘Senku’ doesn’t obey, merely going to the door and grabbing the spear leaning against the door.

“ I could do that,” Senku says. “Or I can show you how to turn this-”

He lifts the grey roots. “-Into a silver spear for him.”

Chrome blinks. “Wait, that plant root stuff can turn into silver? How do you know that?”

Senku grins.

“Oh, that’s only the tip of what I know…”

* * *

When Ginro wakes up, Chrome is looking over him with a worried expression, and it looks like he’s been crying. Ginro immediately jerks up from the ground.

“ Oh no, what did he do?” he says. “I never should have agreed! I bet he didn’t even-”

Ginro immediately cuts himself off, when Chrome hands him his spear. Adorned with a glorious silver tip.

“ Oh my...IT’S AMAZING!” Ginro explodes, grabbing it and hugging the wooden pole tightly. “I love it! Thank you so much!”

Behind him, Senku laughs. “Well, you did me a solid. Consider it well earned.”

“ I can’t believe you could see ghosts all this time and never told me!” Chrome says, and Ginro pries his head off the spear just long enough to frown at the other villager.

“ Because when I tell people, they say I’m making it up or I’m going crazy!” he says. “Besides, it’s not like there’s a lot of them around. This Senku guy is weird.”

Then he flinches and hugs his spear tightly again. “But good weird! Please don’t take it away!”

“ I’m not going to take it away,” Senku tells him, rolling his eyes. “But I might need to borrow your body every now and then. Chrome needs a few more science lessons.”

Almost at the same time, Chrome starts speaking up.

“ Hey, what’s Senku saying? He said he’d show me some more super baaad science if he could get a body. Can you help out?”

Ginro makes a show of thinking about it.

“ What’s in it for me?” he asks. “I have to guard the bridge most days you know.”

“ You don’t get it, Senku knows like, everything!” Chrome insists. “I wasn’t sure you weren’t playing a prank or something, so I tried to battle him with sorcery-”

“ I crushed him,” Senku adds.

“ -And it was awesome! I mean, I was off my game a little, but still! He says we might be able to make a drug to help Ruri!” Chrome continues. “We have to try!”

“ Really?” Ginro yelps, and then sinks.

“ Does it have to be me though? I don’t want to be possessed all day.”

Chrome sighs. “I know, but you’re the only one who can talk to him. It’s not like I can let him possess me.”

Senku stills.

“ Hey, Ginro,” he says. “Ask Chrome to give me permission.”

“ Huh, why?” Ginro asks.

“ I want to see if I can possess someone other than you,” Senku explains. “If I can possess someone who can’t see me, then I don’t have to possess you.”

His smirk gets wicked.

“ Which also means you can prove you’re not seeing things and prove I’m real.”

The blond's eyes go wide.

“ Oooh...that would-”

He stops and shakes his head. “No, no, no, bad Ginro. Don’t listen to the spirits.”

“ Ginro, what’s he’s saying?” Chrome says irritated. “I’m missing half the conversation.”

“ He wants you to give permission to possess him,” Ginro explains. “But that’s way too dangerous to-”

“ Oh sure! I give permission!” Chrome says with a grin. “I wanna try this possession thing out!”

Ginro squawks, and Senku immediately flies over, sticking his hand inside Chrome’s chest.

“ I wonder if there’s a specific way to go about this,” Senku says, before the rush and sudden darkness hits again. A few seconds later, Ginro is looking at him warily, while Senku starts cackling in the sorcerer’s body.

“ Yes!” he cheers. “Oh, this will make things ten billion percent easier!”

Granted, possessing Chrome isn’t exactly better. The self-proclaimed sorcerer is the likely the only person in the village who will retain his science knowledge, and he needs him more as a partner than a carrier, but maybe it means they can double up the work – they can experiment and see if Senku can possess him while he’s asleep and work when Chrome isn’t?

With the experiment considered a success, Senku quickly leaves his body, floating out and landing on the ground between him and the nervous Ginro.

“ Success!” Senku says, grinning like a loon while Chrome shakes off the possession. “Now we just need to find someone in the village as crazy as Chrome or willing to listen to you, and we’ll increase the manpower.”

“ That’s not a lot of people,” Ginro says. “There’s a reason Chrome’s hut is outside the village and isn’t allowed to bring stuff in.”

“ I don’t know, if we explain it, Kohaku might be willing to help,” Chrome says. “If it’ll help Ruri, she’ll definitely be on board.”

“ Kohaku huh?” Senku says. “Sure, if you can talk her into-”

Senku stills, and Ginro squeaks.

No, wait, be rational.

Slowly, he turns. And there’s Chrome. Staring wide eyed and directly at Senku.

“ Wait...you can see me?” Senku asks. Chrome nods.

“ Yeah...wow, you don’t look anything like I expected.”

“ ...Should I ask?”

“ I don’t know!” Chrome defends. “I guess...older?”

Senku can’t help it, he bursts into laughter, while Ginro explodes.

“ How?” Ginro screams. “How can you see him now?”

He’s pointing wildly in Senku’s direction, and Chrome shakes his head.

“ I don’t know! After everything went black, I woke up, and there he was.”

He gestures over at the ghost between them, and his eyes widened.

“ Hey, I wonder if you were possessed by a ghost when you were younger!” Chrome suggests. “Maybe that’s why you can see them?”

“ I was possessed when I was little?” Ginro whimpers.

“ Maybe,” Senku says, but he’s still grinning. “But if this means anyone can see me after possession...”

Then things have gotten a lot easier...

* * *

While Senku did discover he could possess people who gave permission, the ‘getting permission’ part had been something of an issue. Kohaku had agreed mostly out of curiosity, and Kinro had agreed to prove Ginro wrong – which hadn’t ended very well for him – speaking of, Senku really does need to see about making glasses before they work on the science lab, the guard definitely needs them. As does the young Suika, who just wanted to be involved. However, nobody else will even consider it as a joke, and some of the stronger villagers were getting angry at their requests.

With no manpower, and a frustrating limitation with one person being incorporeal, the drug had to be put on the sidelines for Senku’s true quest – curing the petrification.

And so, two months after Senku woke up as a ghost, he’s trailing after Chrome and Kohaku as they go to dig up his body, a priceless liquid in their hands.

“ So, are we sure this will work?” Kohaku asks, pausing slightly to check the face of each statue they pass. “It’ll be irritating if we come all this way only to lug a rock back to the village.”

“ You didn’t have to come,” Chrome snaps. “Besides, the miracle fluid worked on the swallow. No reason why it won’t work on Senku too.”

“ But what if we revive it and he’s still dead?”

“ Then we’ve lost nothing,” Senku interrupts. “But if we want to make half the things we need for the cure all sulfa drug, we need more manpower, even if it’s just my skinny body.”

They know the area well, having had to make trips several times to collect nitric acid from the cave, which Senku strongly suspected was the catalyst to waking up his brain. It would have been more efficient to stay in the area to reduce the travel, but the village has everything they need, and between not leaving Ruri too long and their own responsibilities to the culture, commuting is the only option. It’s been a frustrating few months, but they finally achieved success, two swallows breaking free from petrification and flying into the sky.

As such, he’s more than a little giddy when the two villagers reach his body and pull away the fauna and dirt. He’d left it where it lay while they experimented, mostly because it had been safe there for thousands of years and shifting it was an unnecessary factor, but he’s finally ready to move.

“ Well here goes nothing,” Chrome says, and pours the miracle fluid directly onto Senku’s statue. Senku watches as it spills over his head, down his neck, and onto his skinny chest.

Then, there’s a tugging feeling, that feels as if it comes from deep within. It lacks the painful experience of possession, and as Chrome’s voice becomes vague and distant, things go white, and Senku hears a strong, unmistakable crack...

* * *

When the light fades, he’s looking up at Chrome and Kohaku from beneath rock fragments, and grins.

Time to really get to work.


End file.
